SpectraCal and Pandora announced last week the availability of a complete color cube characterization package for the professional video creation industry.

Featuring Pandora’s new PLUTO image processor and a new version of SpectraCal’s CalMAN Studio software optimized for PLUTO, the package offers an accuracy of monitor characterization never previously attainable, while requiring less time than any previous solution. The need to characterize reference monitors has become more acute in recent years since the demise of the CRT reference monitors which used to be ubiquitous in studios.

CalMAN Studio characterizes a display in detail and creates a characterization cube, also known as a 3D look-up table (LUT), to compensate for the monitor’s deviations from a reference standard. PLUTO applies the cube to the signal, allowing video professionals to be sure they are seeing exactly the same image on all monitors.

PLUTO features twin HDSDI 3G connections and can be used to transcode from Dual Link 4:4:4 to single link 4:2:2 and or RGB/YUV color space. Each PLUTO has 16 available slots to host a chain of 1D/3D/1D LUT’s for complex color pipelines, all instantly switchable and changeable from either a local front panel or a remote GUI.

A “Dual Head” mode allows a single Pluto unit to be used with two totally independent single link sources with separate 16/17/32/33 point cubes applied to each destination display. Alternatively the device can be used in dual link mode with a single display. The Pluto is also available in a configuration compatible with the emerging 4K displays.

Here are all the stats: http://www.spectracal.com